Retired colonel fires salvo at Canadian forces recruiting ads
Tim Naumetz, CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Published: Monday, September 18, 2006
OTTAWA - A retired Canadian Forces officer who advised the Canadian Rights Tribunal when it ruled in 1989 that all armed service roles, including combat, must be available to women is furious new Defence department ads focus on recruiting young men for action in Afghanistan.
Retired Lt.-Col. Shirley Robinson says a department claim that focus-group tests showed men are more likely than women to be drawn to the Canadian Forces for combat-arms jobs could ''turn back the clocks'' for women's rights in the military.
''You go back as far as you want, you're going to find women warriors, women in combat, we're not wusses,'' said Robinson.
She was responding to comments a defence official made while explaining the emphasis producers placed on young men looking for action and adventure in two ads being aired as a test campaign on Atlantic region television and cinema screens.
Uncharacteristically for Canada, the ads rely heavily on an appeal to ''fight with the Canadian Forces'' on rescue operations, fighting fires and floods and, controversially, in combat in Afghanistan.
Jennifer Hubbard, director of advertising and marketing for the department, said while explaining the background to the campaign that focus groups showed men who were interested in joining the forces tended to like adventure, teamwork and action. She added testing with women showed they were not as likely to be interested in combat.
''To read that in the paper just sent me into orbit, along with Steve MacLean,'' said Robinson.
She praised Capt. Nichola Goddard, who last May became the first Canadian woman killed in action in combat as she was leading a forward artillery observation team in a battle against Taliban forces.
''She enjoyed every minute of what she did, and she was leading those guys,'' said Robinson.
Robinson, who joined the forces as a registered nurse and rose through the ranks to eventually attend Canadian Forces Staff College in Toronto, was head of women personnel in the forces and advised Human Rights Tribunal lawyers for the 1989 ruling that opened the doors for women on all Canadian Forces occupations.
''We've been there, done that, the debate is over,'' she said. ''Women are in combat, they're dying and what does it take to get through to people that we're not all alike? I'm too damned old to be, but I'd be over there fighting too, believe you me.''
Col. Kevin Cotten, deputy commander of the Canadian Forces recruiting group, backed up Hubbard's view, however, saying past studies have shown fewer women are interested in joining the forces for combat.
''The propensity to enlist in the Canadian Forces is a little bit lower with women, and it's a fair bit lower when you're talking about the combat arms occupations, infantry, armoured, artillery, engineers, the true frontline folks,'' said Cotten. ''That's a fact, and Col. Robinson may not like it.''
The new ads portray women in several scenes, but they are clearly less prominent in the Afghanistan combat scenes, where a squad of infantry stealthily enters a village house to climb up a flight of stairs, toss a grenade into a room and rescue hostages.
A woman is briefly depicted going up the stairs carrying a rifle, but her face is partially masked by the rifle stock. Another infantry woman at the end of the ad looks down at the ground as a taller male officer, helmet off, speaks to another soldier. The women portrayed most prominently in the ads are a medic with a red cross on her fatigue sleeve and another who appears to be an officer in a civilian emergency.
Statistics provided by the Canadian Forces show women account for only 1.4 per cent of rank-and-file soldiers in combat arms occupations and 3.8 per cent of officers in combat arms. The figures show women make up 51 per cent of clerical personnel, and 44 per cent of officers in medical and dental occupations. They account for only 3.6 per cent of pilots.
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